Folders for School & District Admins

Optimizing EdTech Collaboration and Curriculum Management

TIMEFRAME

4 months

ROLE

UX Design and Research

TOOLS

Figma, FigJam

COLLABORATORS

Tracy Swander - Senior Product Designer

Kristen Thayer - Engineering Manager

Daniel Mrdjenovich - Product Manager

Sage Ono - Software Engineer

Danny Hendrix - Software Engineer

Tom Quinn - Software Engineer

Overview

The project aimed to enhance Seesaw Learning, a comprehensive student engagement and curriculum-building platform tailored for elementary schools. I collaborated with a cross-functional team to optimize the platform's organizational structure, specifically focusing on redesigning folders within the school and district library. Our goal was to create a more intuitive and efficient system for administrators to curate and disseminate recommended lessons to teachers.

Objective and Key Results

Create a more intuitive, effective system for school and district administrators to curate and disseminate lessons to teachers.

10% increase in teacher engagement in the school library

5% increase in platform usage for administrators

Process

EMPATHIZE

Understanding the user

We interviewed curriculum team members and school administrators to understand their needs. We identified four main concerns:

Efficiently distributing and organizing lessons
Needing a customizable hub for teachers
Streamlined bulk actions for library organization
Varied permissions for folder access

They also want a controlled approval process to ensure quality. Addressing these issues will improve the platform's user experience and efficiency.

Documenting experiences

Personas offer a user-focused lens, helping us empathize with the specific needs and challenges of the District Administrator, School Administrator, and Teacher. By embodying their experiences, we ensure our solutions directly address their goals, resulting in a more user-friendly and effective platform.

What are other companies doing?

To gather valuable insights into expectations, design trends, and standards in the market, the team conducted a competitive analysis on similar small business websites.

Industry Best Practices

User-Friendly Interface
Curriculum Mapping
Departmental Collaboration
Flexible Course Offerings
Centralized Course Catalog
Filter and Search Functionality
Customization Options

Nearpod
Kahoot
Schoology
BrainPOP

Current User Flows

To delve deeper into the challenges faced by various personas, I analyzed the existing user flows. This analysis played a crucial role in guiding decisions throughout different phases of the project, ensuring alignment with engineering feasibility within the stipulated timeframe.

Add to Collection
Reorder and Add Section

IDEATE

Problem Area Map

Crafting problem area maps in collaboration with the Product Manager has been a crucial aspect of our case study. Together, we outlined three main issues, providing detailed descriptions, user-centric examples, potential solutions, and a priority ranking. These collaborative maps serve as a visual guide for decision-making, ensuring a cohesive and targeted approach to resolving user pain points effectively. The insights from both UX and product management perspectives contribute to a comprehensive understanding, allowing us to prioritize solutions that align with our shared goals and user needs.

Suggested User Flows

Informed by the problem area map and prior research, I formulated two user flows for the proposed solution. The MVP drew from the existing application, leveraging my insights as a developer on the product and a pragmatic assessment of what could be accomplished before the school resumed after winter break. The envisioned future state incorporated all requested features, featuring a subtle redesign and additional enhancements for the school and district library to elevate the overall user experience.

MVP

Adding the existing collection flow (from My Library) to Schools & Districts Library

Future State

Allowing Bulk Add, Approval, and Permissions

Wireframes

I created wireframes first to develop the overall structure of each page with the user flow in mind.

Exploring Design Options

Three design options for the “Create Collection” flow were presented to the developers during a UX/engineering working meeting based on level of effort perceived. The developers chose the most feasible option based on resources and complexity.

High Effort

The high effort design guides the user gently through creating a collection and adding activities before entering the page itself. They do all of this in one stepped modal design

Medium Effort

The medium effort designs do not walk the user through adding activities when they first create a collection. Instead they are taken to an empty page with a prompt to add them there. The modal from then on is the same any time they add more activities.

Low Effort

The low effort design uses the concepts Seesaw Learning has in the teacher profiles by just asking for a collection name and then letting the user change colors, descriptions, etc from there. They are similarly taken to a blank collection page where they are prompted to add activities.

PROTOTYPE

Visual Design

Now that all of the frameworks were in place, I worked on high-fidelity prototypes for guidance on later development and validation testing for the users before actual code-based work.

After the developers gave their anticipated constraints and available level of effort, I designed the rest of the functionality for the admins inside the collections such as:

Add/Edit Sections
Rearrange Collection
Delete Collection
Delete Activities
Edit Details

School and District Library Homepage.png

DEVELOP

Collaboration with Developers

Close Collaboration

Ensured alignment between design and technical feasibility
Leveraged Jira, GitHub, and Figma for a streamlined workflow

Valuable Insights

Developers highlighted potential challenges early
Compatibility Issues

Seamless Transition

Facilitated a smooth shift from design to development
Maintained practicality without compromising user experience

Adaptability and Innovation

Addressed unexpected obstacles swiftly.
Fostered an environment conducive to innovation and problem-solving.

Learnings Recap

Throughout the project, I gained insights into the complexities of enhancing user experience within educational technology. Reflecting on challenges faced, such as balancing innovation with practicality, I deepened my understanding of designing for diverse user groups. These experiences have informed my approach to future projects, emphasizing the importance of collaboration and iterative prototyping.

Insights

One surprising insight from user research was the significant impact that intuitive organizational structures had on user satisfaction and engagement. While I anticipated the importance of usability, witnessing firsthand how streamlined navigation positively influenced user experience underscored the critical role of information architecture in product design.

Measuring Success

Quantitative data collected post-launch revealed a significant increase in user engagement metrics, including a 15% rise in daily active users. User feedback surveys further indicated a 50% increase in overall satisfaction with platform usability and organization. Visual representations of these metrics, alongside discussions of unexpected findings and their implications, provided a comprehensive view of the project's success.

Jordan was an integral part of the Content and Instruction team during her time at Seesaw.

Not only was she great at architecting and implementing features end to end, uncovering and fixing bugs quickly, and other engineering work, but she also leaned into her design skills and worked with the design team to propose and refine future design ideas for our part of the product. I'd love to work with her again in the future!

— Kristen Thayer